Updated on March 17, 2022.
If you’re carrying unwanted excess weight—and if trying to shed it all seems overwhelming—you may be surprised to learn that a little weight loss can go a long way.
A study found that losing as little as 5 percent of one's body weight could help reverse some of the unhealthy physical effects that obesity has on the heart muscle.
A change of heart
When you gain extra pounds, it can affect your heart size. The heart muscle gets thicker. And that's not good, because when the heart muscle gets too thick, it has a harder time pumping blood and relaxing between pumps. That could put you on the fast track to problems like heart failure.
But in a study of over 2,300 people published in 2015 in European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, imaging studies revealed that every 5 percent weight loss resulted in an over 1 percent improvement in the heart's structure and function. The researchers actually saw beneficial changes with even smaller amounts of weight loss.
Weight loss wonders
Researchers aren't exactly sure how losing weight helps transform the heart muscle, but the benefits weight loss brings to blood pressure, insulin resistance, and inflammatory protein levels likely play a role.
